Wis. exit polls: Deep union divide

Wisconsin remains sharply divided on the issue of public employee unions and how Gov. Scott Walker dealt with them, according to exit polls on Tuesday.

Roughly half of Wisconsin voters, or 51 percent, say they have a favorable view of such unions, the exits polls showed, according to ABC News. And on Gov. Scott Walker’s handling of collective bargaining, which helped spur his recall election, 52 percent said they approved and 47 percent disapproved.

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Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who Walker defeated Tuesday night, received most of the union support. One-third of voters were from union households, and from that group Barrett was preferred by 62, compared with Walker’s 38 percent, pollsters found.

And exit polls conducted by CBS News echoed these numbers, with 52 percent of Wisconsin voters saying they have a favorable view of public employee unions. And on the issue of collective bargaining, 50 percent told pollsters for CBS they approved of the changes in the state law, while 48 percent disapproved.

Turnout was up among households with a union member which comprised 33 percent of voters - an rise from 2010 and 2008, when 26 percent of voters said there was a union member in their household, CBS New said.